‘Today Show’ Hosts Claim They Have Experienced Mom Shaming

By Charley Frank, Published on Jun 24, 2017

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Many moms use social media sites including Facebook and Instagram to show pictures of their children, record milestones in their life or even share a funny or cute moment. Although most find the posts endearing, there always seems to be a group of people who decide to write a nasty comment, shame the mother or tell her that her parenting is wrong. Despite some mothers feeling alone in hearing such comments, it turns out that most mothers have been subjected to it for all different kinds of reasons.

In a recent study conducted by C.S Mott Children’s Hospital, their results from the National Poll on children’s health revealed that 6 in 10 mothers of children aged five and under have been criticized for their parenting choices, comments which mainly come from their own family members.

The topic and results were discussed on ‘The Today Show’ with hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, joining in the debate and admitting that they themselves have experienced plenty of mom shaming due to their public and social media presence. Guthrie recalled the comments on a picture she posted of her baby Vale on the beach who wasn’t wearing a hat. Many users called her out accusing her of letting her baby burn and not taking her motherly duties seriously.

In response, Savannah said that the baby was in the sun for “one second” in the picture and that “Her skin has never seen the light of day,”. Furthermore, Savannah attempted to shut down the shamers by admitting how she is a two time survivor of skin cancer and there was no way she would allow her new baby to risk anything.

Hoda Kotb admitted she had a similar experience when she posted a picture of baby Haley Joy and users questioned her on why the baby wasn’t wearing sunglasses despite the fact the baby was shaded under an umbrella. Both Hoda and Savannah explained that due to being in the public eye, every part of their lives that is shown is scrutinized, especially when it comes to calling out new parents.

The ‘Today Show’ hosts are not the only celebrities who have experienced this but also the likes of Chrissy Teigen, Blake Lively and Kelly Clarkson have been targeted on their social media by mom shamers.

In the mom shaming poll, many of the mothers had said that they were likely to avoid anyone who gave them negative criticism about their parenting.